from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. The distribution of an initial or new and upgraded version of a computer software product; the distribution can be both public or private.

n. Anything recently released or made available (as for sale).

n. That which is released, untied or let go.

v. To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.

v. To let go (of); to cease to hold or contain.

v. To make available to the public.

v. To free or liberate; to set free.

v. To discharge.

v. (of a call) To hang up.

v. To set up; to provide with a goal-scoring opportunity

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

transitive v. To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.

transitive v. To let loose again; to set free from restraint, confinement, or servitude; to give liberty to, or to set at liberty; to let go.

transitive v. To relieve from something that confines, burdens, or oppresses, as from pain, trouble, obligation, penalty.

transitive v. To let go, as a legal claim; to discharge or relinquish a right to, as lands or tenements, by conveying to another who has some right or estate in possession, as when the person in remainder releases his right to the tenant in possession; to quit.

transitive v. To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of.

n. The act of letting loose or freeing, or the state of being let loose or freed; liberation or discharge from restraint of any kind, as from confinement or bondage.

n. Relief from care, pain, or any burden.

n. Discharge from obligation or responsibility, as from debt, penalty, or claim of any kind; acquittance.

n. A giving up or relinquishment of some right or claim; a conveyance of a man's right in lands or tenements to another who has some estate in possession; a quitclaim.

n. The act of opening the exhaust port to allow the steam to escape.

n. A device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required

n. The act or manner of ending a sound.

n. In the block-signaling system, a printed card conveying information and instructions to be used at intermediate sidings without telegraphic stations.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To let loose; set free from restraint or confmement; liberate, as from prison, confinement, or servitude.

To free from pain, care, trouble, grief, or any other evil.

To free from obligation or penalty: as, to release one from debt, or from a promise or covenant.

To forgive.

To quit; let go, as a legal claim; remit; surrender or relinquish: as, to release a debt, or to release a right to lands or tenements by conveying to another already having some right or estate in possession.

To relax.

To let slip; let go; give up.

To take out of pawn. Nabbes, The Bride (4 to, 1640), sig. F. iv.

n. Liberation or discharge from restraint of any kind, as from confinement or bondage.

n. Liberation from care, pain, or any burden.

n. Discharge from obligation or responsibility, as from debt, tax, penalty, or claim of any kind; acquittance.

n. In law, a surrender of a right; a remission of a claim in such form as to estop the grantor from asserting it. again.

n. In a steam-engine, the opening of the exhaust-port before the stroke is finished, to lessen the back-pressure.

n. In archery, the act of letting go the bowstring in shooting; the mode of performing this act, which differs among different peoples.

In this stage of product stabilization (read QA cycle), all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more Alpha cycles with no known Corporation often uses the term release candidate.